Sunday, February 28, 2010

Todays speaker was Louise Jessup, her talk was called "A Journey in Mental Health with Textiles as a Companion". The work she had to show us came from the last eight years, her recovery years, because although she had turned to textiles many times duing her illness she had destroyed all her pieces as not being of any worth. Louise told her story with humour and honesty. Very moving and thought provoking. You can read more about Louise here

February fill dyke is certainly living up to its reputation and it isn't as beautiful as this painting by Benjamin Williams Leader which is in the Birmingham Art Gallery

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Jude Hill of Spirit Cloth has produced a video, the first of a series, she promises, where you can watch her actually creating a cloth. I found a wonderful calm watching the gentle rhythm of her stitching. Go here and enjoy.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Sat Nav to me!!! I trusted the *'*^ thing and where did it land me?.......In the middle of a housing estate....where fortunately I found a lovely family just going out to do their Saturday shopping. Dad said in his lovely Suffolk accent, "Oh no, Love you're miles away".... Great! I was already late, but he gave me excellent directions and, if by some miracle he ever comes across this, I thank him for getting me where I was supposed to be just the teensy's bit late.......well actually he wasn't the only one...when I overshot my excellent directions, there was the other lovely gentleman,, just setting out for his morning walk, who set me right. Suffolk is a lovely county, I even saw a beautiful Suffolk Pink cottage and what looked like a Watermill as I flashed by.

Where was I going? For a lovely day out, taking part in a Transfer Painting on Lutradur with Dijane Cevaal at the invitation of Sandy Marcoux. I took loads of photographs because Dijane had many examples of her striking work with her but you must go to her site to see these. These are our papers drying in the sunshine

and these are some papers made with some of Dijane's wonderful lino cuts.

I have to admit that I was having such a good making papers and listening to the fascinating conversations that I didn't get round to getting my machine out, (watch this space) but I came away so full of ideas. As per usual I find it difficult to be "creative" in a workshop environment but I am hoping that the ideas are going to flow when I get into my own room. Thank you Dijane and Sandy for a good day.

Coming home? Well, I didn't need my Sat Nav so I did it in 40 minutes less!!!

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

It was a full day on Satuday at EG, we were treated to a talk by Libby Smith, she took us through the inspirations for her work and brought a wonderful array of examples. From large and small beaded tassels to fantasy shoes we were able to examine each in detail. My favourite piece was an encrusted purse made in the shape of India (a source of much of her inspiration). I can't quite remember the phrase she used but it was something like "not quite goldwork" in other words she has used goldwork techniques but lots of others as well. I forgot to ask if I could take a photograph. We also had Neredah's Threads do delight the eye and dent the bank balance. (No web site I'm afraid). I managed in between things to put about 6 french knots on my Snowcloth.

My Snowcloth started here after I had vaguely maked out the ares of colour I realised that it was a bit like the way I start a doodle....idea! So I am now gradually filling in the areas in the same way I would doodle, it is great fun working out which stitches to use to make the different fillings.

The Darenth Valley was beautiful in the morning but I didn't have time to stop but on the way home I couldn't resist this